LucasPye Bio, a Philadelphia biologics contract development and manufacturing organization, has formed a partnership with Africa-based genomics company IndyGeneUS AI aimed at advancing targeted therapeutics focused on health disparities.
Under the collaboration, LucasPye will make novel therapeutics for IndyGeneUS of Nairobi, Kenya, to use in animal studies, clinical trials and the commercial market post-regulatory approval.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“The fact that we can speed this company to market is a part of my mission," said LucasPye founder and CEO Tia Lyles-Williams. "Scientists need support and an experienced commercialization team. These guys have commercially viable assets, community support, and most importantly they are focused on equity in drug discovery and diversity in clinical trials. This is core to my company’s mission of focusing on underserved populations.”
The IndyGeneUS partnership is the first customer deal announced by LucasPye. The company has other potential customers in its pipeline. "Unfortunately, we are not at liberty to share their company names at this time," Lyles-Williams said.
In May, IndyGeneUS announced it had reached collaborative agreements with the KAVI Institute of Clinical Research at The University of Nairobi and heath data company Afya Rekod to secure pathogen sequencing capability in Africa to support Covid-19 genomic surveillance initiatives. The collaboration provides IndyGeneUS with access to more 150,000 potential research participants of African descent and enables the company to address the lack of diversity in clinical trials.
IndyGeneUS, which has a U.S. office in Washington, D.C., is working to create the world’s largest block-chain encrypted repository of indigenous and diasporic (those who left their original homeland) African clinical data for discovering therapeutic gene targets and driving precision health equity.
Yusuf Henriques, founder and CEO of IndyGeneUS, said he and Lyles-Williams were Howard University classmates.
“A couple months ago we spoke together at a conference and here we are eight weeks later announcing our partnership," Henriques said. "Tia doesn’t waste time and she’s serious about equity in health care. … With this partnership, we are one step closer to scaling our genome sequencing lab on the continent of Africa and supporting Africans' determination to own the rights to their clinical and genomic data.”
The contract manufacturing LucasPye will conduct for IndyGeneUS will take place at three locations. Cell line development will take place at Celltheon, a California biotech company that has a partnership with LucasPye.
Preclinical development including small-scale bioprocessing for animal studies and toxicology testing will take place in Lower Gwynedd at the Jefferson Institute for Bioprocessing, which is also a LucasPye partner.
Large-scale bioprocessing of new drug candidates for human clinical trials and post-regulatory approval will take place at LucasPye's future contract manufacturing facility that it's planning to build at an undisclosed location in Philadelphia. The company is in the final stage of lease negotiations for its planned manufacturing plant in the city.
